APA Citation: Jacobs, T. A. (2011). Teen cyberbullying investigated, where doyour rights end and consequences begin?. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Pub.
Award: 2011 New Writers Award, YASLA’s Best of Non-fiction
Summary: As digital natives become teens, it is important to remind them of the digital citizenship and internet safety. This book brings to life the real dangers of the Internet, as teen cyberbullying is investigated. Each chapter in this book discusses a specific court case in detail and brings the realization of the matter to the reader. It hits home for teenagers as real-life examples are demonstrated and real life consequences are turned into a reality for some teens.
Critique: This book has some really great examples of teen cyberbullying. I believe a teen would get tired of reading court case after court case, but they would find a few of them very interesting. This would be a great read for assistant principals who are in charge of disciplining students, library media specialists and anyone else in charge of teaching students about digital citizenship, cyberbullying and internet safety. It is a great eye-opener for students.
Curriculum Connection:
Children’s Internet Protection Act: Schools and libraries subject to CIPA are required to adopt and implement an Internet safety policy addressing: (a) access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet; (b) the safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms and other forms of direct electronic communications; (c) unauthorized access, including so-called “hacking,” and other unlawful activities by minors online; (d) unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal information regarding minors; and (e) measures restricting minors’ access to materials harmful to them.
National Education Technology Standards Communication and Collaboration Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media b. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats
Genre: YA Non-fiction
Classroom Activity using Developing Content Literacy: Connect To it
Strategy 18: Making Personal, Text, and World Connections to Text
Before Reading Prepare the students for reading by providing them with an introduction about cyberbullying and an understanding about the content you will discuss. The students will be in groups of four. Each student will have a different court case. The students will make these connections and you will discuss examples of the different types of connections at this time: * Text to Self Connection * Text to Text Connection * Text to World Connection During Reading Provide students with graphic organizer so they can make a connection while reading, stop briefly, record it in their journals and continue. After Reading Allow students to discuss in small groups, encouraging them to discuss the court case and compare connections. Allow for a few students to share aloud their case and connections they made.
Review #2
APA Citation:Handler, D., & Kalman, M. (2011). Why we broke up. (First ed.). New York: Little Brown & Co.
Award: Printz Award 2012 Honor Books
Summary: A graphic novel, that explains the unraveling of a relationship between two high school sweethearts. The main character, Min writes a letter to her boyfriend, Ed explaining why she is breaking up with him and puts it, along with a box of memorabilia on his doorstep. The relationship is explained in the form of a long letter, giving the reader pictures to go along with each item that is included in the box.
Critique: This book took me back to my high school days and I could relate to many things the main character had to say. In high school, many girls keep a “box”, whether it be an old shoe box, a real shadow box or just a cardboard box from a package that was shipped, full of tokens they have collected on special dates. It could be movie ticket stubs, fair admission bracelets, seashells collected with their boyfriend while on vacation, or wilted roses from Valentine’s Day. Most every teenage girl that has been in love or in lust can relate to this story. Those who haven’t probably daydream about those kinds of things each day. The storyline definitely will appeal to teen girls, but not so much to boys. The graphic novel approach used also makes it more appealing to teens. This could not be used in a classroom setting, but definitely should be in the library. There are some controversial things such as sex and language but nothing over the top for a high school student. I don’t think I would put it in the middle school library.
Curriculum Connection:Kentucky Common Core Curriculum: Grade 9-10 CC.9-10.R.L.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Genre: YA Fiction, Graphic Novel
Promotional Activity: Valentine’s Day Activities Valentine’s Day is an emotional day for high school students. If a girl has a boyfriend it is always a competition to see who gets the best flowers or candy and if a girl doesn’t have a boyfriend she feels embarrassed and left out on this day. This book could give the traditional Valentine’s holiday a twist. The high school could have a variety of books on display for the holiday and several activities that students could get involved with. There could be a poster where kids write their “break-up” stories on in the library each day or a poster where they could write their most embarrassing moment in a relationship, obviously it would have to be appropriate. Another thing to tie in the character would be to have a candy-gram sale. “Who needs boys, when we have our friends? “ Send your bff a candy gram. All of these would be geared more towards girls, but even the boys who did not get their girlfriend anything could also buy a candy-gram and send to them!
Review #3
APA Citation: Patterson, J., Tebbetts, C., Park, L., & et al, (2011). Middle school, theworst years of my life. New York:
Little, Brown and Company.
Award: 2012 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers
Summary: This graphic novel is about Rafe Khatchadoria, a boy who is dreading his middle school days. His mom is always working and his stepdad is a loser. He has no motivation for life or school and just wants to find a way to get through it. With the help of his best friend, Leo the Silent, Rafe decides it will be fun to break every rule in school. Sooner than later, it all catches up to him and he has to make a decision about finding himself or living life on the run.
Critique: The detailed drawings will help capture the attention of many young adult readers. They will get to know the main character very well because of the descriptiveness of the comics. Many students will be able to relate to Rafe, who is failing in school and in life and needs love and support to overcome many obstacles. Like many young boys, Rafe is interested in breaking rules, impressing girls, and fending off the bullies. Rafe is a good-hearted boy but doesn’t have the home life to guide him down the right path, but in the end Rafe understands the consequences and long term effects of breaking the rules.
Curriculum Connection:Kentucky Common Core Curriculum:
Grade 9-10 CC.9-10.R.L.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Genre: YA Fiction, Comic Book and Graphic Novel
Promotional Activity: Middle School: The Best Years of My Life Open HouseTheme
Our school always has an open house for all students the week before school starts. I think this would be a great way to kick off the year and to grab the attention of middle school students. Parents usually pick up their child’s schedule and go on a tour of the building to see all the classes. One of the stops, will be the library media center, where the parents can pick up the Student Handbook and Code of Conduct. The book is about Rafe trying to break all 112 rules in the code of conduct. I thought this would be a cute little twist on the book and a way to get parents in the door. Once they are there, I can hand out free bookmarks and stickers and I will be able to introduce myself as the LMS so that they can put a face with a name.
Review #4
APA Citation:Schmidt, G. D. (2011). Okay for now. New York: Clarion Books.
Award: Odyssey Award 2012 Honor Recordings
Summary: An audiobook, the main character, an 8th grader named Doug has just moved to a new town. The move was forced because of Doug’s dysfunctional family. His dad lost his job and is abusive, his brother living at home is a bully and the other one is off at war and his mom is sweet but is passive. Doug doesn’t want to move to stupid Marysville but has no choice. However, something in the library that is open once a week catches Doug’s eye and that is where the story and Doug begins to change.
Critique: It is probably the teacher in me coming out, but I enjoyed this book. I know that so many boys can relate to this novel. Nobody is perfect and this book paints a picture of the not-so-perfect world that we all live in. Doug is up against all odds. He could just be a failure like the rest of his family, but he doesn’t want that kind of life. He wants something more. It is about the story of a boy who does not give up and finds that one person to confide in and to motivate him. He learns that he is somebody. I am not sure how the kids will react to it, but it is definitely something I want to put on my shelf because I know many students have many of the same experiences and can relate to this book.
Curriculum Connection:Kentucky Common Core Curriculum: Grade 8: CC2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text
Genre: YA Fiction, Audiobook
Developing Content Area Literacy:
Strategy 14 – Conflict Dissection The students will use a graphic organizer to help them identify plot elements of conflict and resolution.
Graphic Organizer will include: Someone: (Main Character) Wanted/Because: (Motivation) But: (Conflict/Problem) So: (Solution)
Before Reading: Teacher will model the strategy.
During Reading: Students will take notes and comments while reading and then students will be put into pairs and will complete the graphic organizer
After Reading: The teacher leads a debriefing where students defend their information by making references to the text. The students will also write a summary based on the information in their graphic organizer.
Review #1
APA Citation:
Jacobs, T. A. (2011). Teen cyberbullying investigated, where do your rights end and consequences begin?. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Pub.
Award: 2011 New Writers Award, YASLA’s Best of Non-fiction
Summary: As digital natives become teens, it is important to remind them of the digital citizenship and internet safety. This book brings to life the real dangers of the Internet, as teen cyberbullying is investigated. Each chapter in this book discusses a specific court case in detail and brings the realization of the matter to the reader. It hits home for teenagers as real-life examples are demonstrated and real life consequences are turned into a reality for some teens.
Critique: This book has some really great examples of teen cyberbullying. I believe a teen would get tired of reading court case after court case, but they would find a few of them very interesting. This would be a great read for assistant principals who are in charge of disciplining students, library media specialists and anyone else in charge of teaching students about digital citizenship, cyberbullying and internet safety. It is a great eye-opener for students.
Curriculum Connection:
Children’s Internet Protection Act: Schools and libraries subject to CIPA are required to adopt and implement an Internet safety policy addressing: (a) access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet; (b) the safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms and other forms of direct electronic communications; (c) unauthorized access, including so-called “hacking,” and other unlawful activities by minors online; (d) unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal information regarding minors; and (e) measures restricting minors’ access to materials harmful to them.
National Education Technology Standards
Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
b. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats
Genre: YA Non-fiction
Classroom Activity using Developing Content Literacy: Connect To it
Strategy 18: Making Personal, Text, and World Connections to Text
Before Reading
Prepare the students for reading by providing them with an introduction about cyberbullying and an understanding about the content you will discuss. The students will be in groups of four. Each student will have a different court case. The students will make these connections and you will discuss examples of the different types of connections at this time:
* Text to Self Connection
* Text to Text Connection
* Text to World Connection
During Reading
Provide students with graphic organizer so they can make a connection while reading, stop briefly, record it in their journals and continue.
After Reading
Allow students to discuss in small groups, encouraging them to discuss the court case and compare connections. Allow for a few students to share aloud their case and connections they made.
Review #2
APA Citation:Handler, D., & Kalman, M. (2011). Why we broke up. (First ed.). New
York: Little Brown & Co.
Award: Printz Award 2012 Honor Books
Summary: A graphic novel, that explains the unraveling of a relationship between two high school sweethearts. The main character, Min writes a letter to her boyfriend, Ed explaining why she is breaking up with him and puts it, along with a box of memorabilia on his doorstep. The relationship is explained in the form of a long letter, giving the reader pictures to go along with each item that is included in the box.
Critique: This book took me back to my high school days and I could relate to many things the main character had to say. In high school, many girls keep a “box”, whether it be an old shoe box, a real shadow box or just a cardboard box from a package that was shipped, full of tokens they have collected on special dates. It could be movie ticket stubs, fair admission bracelets, seashells collected with their boyfriend while on vacation, or wilted roses from Valentine’s Day. Most every teenage girl that has been in love or in lust can relate to this story. Those who haven’t probably daydream about those kinds of things each day. The storyline definitely will appeal to teen girls, but not so much to boys. The graphic novel approach used also makes it more appealing to teens. This could not be used in a classroom setting, but definitely should be in the library. There are some controversial things such as sex and language but nothing over the top for a high school student. I don’t think I would put it in the middle school library.
Curriculum Connection:Kentucky Common Core Curriculum:
Grade 9-10 CC.9-10.R.L.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Genre: YA Fiction, Graphic Novel
Promotional Activity: Valentine’s Day Activities
Valentine’s Day is an emotional day for high school students. If a girl has a boyfriend it is always a competition to see who gets the best flowers or candy and if a girl doesn’t have a boyfriend she feels embarrassed and left out on this day. This book could give the traditional Valentine’s holiday a twist. The high school could have a variety of books on display for the holiday and several activities that students could get involved with. There could be a poster where kids write their “break-up” stories on in the library each day or a poster where they could write their most embarrassing moment in a relationship, obviously it would have to be appropriate. Another thing to tie in the character would be to have a candy-gram sale. “Who needs boys, when we have our friends? “ Send your bff a candy gram. All of these would be geared more towards girls, but even the boys who did not get their girlfriend anything could also buy a candy-gram and send to them!
Review #3
APA Citation: Patterson, J., Tebbetts, C., Park, L., & et al, (2011). Middle school, the worst years of my life. New York:
Little, Brown and Company.
Award: 2012 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers
Summary: This graphic novel is about Rafe Khatchadoria, a boy who is dreading his middle school days. His mom is always working and his stepdad is a loser. He has no motivation for life or school and just wants to find a way to get through it. With the help of his best friend, Leo the Silent, Rafe decides it will be fun to break every rule in school. Sooner than later, it all catches up to him and he has to make a decision about finding himself or living life on the run.
Critique: The detailed drawings will help capture the attention of many young adult readers. They will get to know the main character very well because of the descriptiveness of the comics. Many students will be able to relate to Rafe, who is failing in school and in life and needs love and support to overcome many obstacles. Like many young boys, Rafe is interested in breaking rules, impressing girls, and fending off the bullies. Rafe is a good-hearted boy but doesn’t have the home life to guide him down the right path, but in the end Rafe understands the consequences and long term effects of breaking the rules.
Curriculum Connection: Kentucky Common Core Curriculum:
Grade 9-10 CC.9-10.R.L.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Genre: YA Fiction, Comic Book and Graphic Novel
Promotional Activity: Middle School: The Best Years of My Life Open House Theme
Our school always has an open house for all students the week before school starts. I think this would be a great way to kick off the year and to grab the attention of middle school students. Parents usually pick up their child’s schedule and go on a tour of the building to see all the classes. One of the stops, will be the library media center, where the parents can pick up the Student Handbook and Code of Conduct. The book is about Rafe trying to break all 112 rules in the code of conduct. I thought this would be a cute little twist on the book and a way to get parents in the door. Once they are there, I can hand out free bookmarks and stickers and I will be able to introduce myself as the LMS so that they can put a face with a name.
Review #4
APA Citation:Schmidt, G. D. (2011). Okay for now. New York: Clarion Books.
Award: Odyssey Award 2012 Honor Recordings
Summary: An audiobook, the main character, an 8th grader named Doug has just moved to a new town. The move was forced because of Doug’s dysfunctional family. His dad lost his job and is abusive, his brother living at home is a bully and the other one is off at war and his mom is sweet but is passive. Doug doesn’t want to move to stupid Marysville but has no choice. However, something in the library that is open once a week catches Doug’s eye and that is where the story and Doug begins to change.
Critique: It is probably the teacher in me coming out, but I enjoyed this book. I know that so many boys can relate to this novel. Nobody is perfect and this book paints a picture of the not-so-perfect world that we all live in. Doug is up against all odds. He could just be a failure like the rest of his family, but he doesn’t want that kind of life. He wants something more. It is about the story of a boy who does not give up and finds that one person to confide in and to motivate him. He learns that he is somebody. I am not sure how the kids will react to it, but it is definitely something I want to put on my shelf because I know many students have many of the same experiences and can relate to this book.
Curriculum Connection:Kentucky Common Core Curriculum:
Grade 8: CC2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text
Genre: YA Fiction, Audiobook
Developing Content Area Literacy:
Strategy 14 – Conflict Dissection
The students will use a graphic organizer to help them identify plot elements of conflict and resolution.
Graphic Organizer will include:
Someone: (Main Character)
Wanted/Because: (Motivation)
But: (Conflict/Problem)
So: (Solution)
Before Reading: Teacher will model the strategy.
During Reading: Students will take notes and comments while reading and then students will be put into pairs and will complete the graphic organizer
After Reading: The teacher leads a debriefing where students defend their information by making references to the text. The students will also write a summary based on the information in their graphic organizer.